Forty-three previously unpublished letters from the novelist Sarah Scott and Lady Barbara Montagu to George Aust, a civil servant who benefited from their generosity and mentorship, are introduced, transcribed, and annotated. The letters expand Scott’s known correspondence and provide new insights into the life of Scott and Lady Bab at the social, cultural, and economic peripheries, their commitment to charitable action, and Scott’s literary and publishing activities after the success of A Description of Millenium Hall (1762). The introduction features an account of Aust’s life and career, describing his relationships with Scott, Lady Bab, and other figures from the Bath and Batheaston communities. It solidifies scholarship on the proto-feminist projects of social reform in which Scott and Lady Bab engaged, demonstrating how Scott’s activities as a professional writer contributed to their benevolent practices and Christian sociability. The introduction also broaches the economics and logistics of eighteenth-century authorship and literary production, exploring the close attention and expertise that women writers brought to their publications and the print marketplace.
Philip Trotter (Mon,) studied this question.